TerraMosaic Daily Digest: June 25, 2026
Daily Summary
The June 25 literature is anchored by process-resolved work on moving boundaries: cliffs, avalanches, dams, and levees. A Landslides paper couples CFD and FDEM to model progressive retreat of rocky coastal cliffs under marine erosion, wave loading, thermal forcing, and structural predisposition. A Geotechnique study links limit-equilibrium source characterization with depth-averaged runout simulation for the 2012 Te Maari avalanche, directly addressing the uncertainty that enters debris-flow and avalanche hazard maps at the source-zone stage. Dam and levee papers then shift attention from slope motion to hydraulic infrastructure, using multi-temporal InSAR, GNSS, leveling, ERT, MASW, and capacitively coupled resistivity to make deformation and internal erosion observable.
A second group strengthens the mechanics behind those observations. Integrated terrestrial and UAV remote sensing is used for rock-mass characterization on small slopes; fault-gouge experiments quantify how pore-fluid properties change dynamic slip in sandstone-derived gouges; calcareous and siliceous sands are compared through an energy interpretation of liquefaction resistance; and hypoplastic, creep, and wave-propagation models extend the treatment of unsaturated or time-dependent ground. These papers are not merely parameter studies: they clarify which material states control runout, liquefaction, settlement, and delayed failure.
The broader hazard signal is hydrological and coastal. Rain-on-snow events are shown to drive a substantial share of annual peak streamflows across snow-affected U.S. watersheds, while ice-control structures, groundwater depletion, coastal groundwater degradation, suspended-sediment retrieval, humid-heat precursors, and cohesive bluff-backed beach retreat all point to hazards that depend on transient storage, thresholds, and transport pathways. The issue therefore reads as a compact argument for monitoring systems that preserve the chain from forcing to material response to infrastructure consequence.
Key Trends
Five movements define this issue: source-zone uncertainty, deformation monitoring of hydraulic infrastructure, material-state mechanics, threshold-driven hydrology, and seismic demand translated into infrastructure response.
- Hazard models are moving upstream to source-zone uncertainty: The coastal-cliff and Te Maari studies show that runout and retreat forecasts depend strongly on source geometry, structural predisposition, wave loading, and failure-initiation assumptions.
- Hydraulic infrastructure is becoming a deformation-monitoring problem: Dam InSAR, GNSS, leveling, levee ERT, MASW, and resistivity surveys all convert slow deformation or internal erosion into evidence that can be inspected before failure.
- Material state is being treated as a first-order hazard variable: Fault-gouge fluid properties, calcareous-sand liquefaction, unsaturated soil coupling, rock creep, and bituminous-sand impact response all make the mechanical state explicit rather than hidden inside empirical coefficients.
- Cold, coastal, and snow-fed hydrology share a threshold logic: Rain-on-snow flooding, ice retention at control structures, cohesive bluff retreat, groundwater depletion, and seawater intrusion are framed through storage, release, and transport thresholds.
- Seismic resilience papers remain useful where they expose system-level demand: Near-fault offshore wind response, damper systems, shear walls, towers, and soil-structure interaction papers are most relevant when they quantify how ground motion propagates into infrastructure performance.
Selected Papers
The selected papers span rocky coastal cliff retreat, debris-flow and avalanche runout, dam deformation, levee internal erosion, UAV rock-mass characterization, fault-gouge dynamic slip, liquefaction resistance, cohesive bluff-backed beaches, rain-on-snow flooding, ice-jam mitigation, rangeland fire monitoring, humid-heat prediction, coastal groundwater degradation, groundwater depletion, suspended sediment retrieval, contaminated-site geophysics, rock creep, unsaturated soil hydro-mechanics, tunnel-induced settlement, seismic wave propagation, near-fault offshore wind response, saturated sand impact behavior, and seismic energy-dissipation devices. This issue contains 30 selected papers from 1831 papers analyzed.
1. Numerical modelling of static and dynamic factors controlling the progressive retreat of rocky coastal cliffs
Core Problem: Soft rocky coastal cliffs retreat through coupled structural, marine, thermal, and time-dependent processes that are difficult to represent in a single model.
Key Innovation: Couples CFD and FDEM to test how structural predisposition, marine erosion, wave loading, thermal forcing, and progressive damage control cliff retreat.
2. Coupled limit equilibrium/depth-averaged approach for debris flow hazard assessment: the 2012 Te Maari avalanche
Core Problem: Mass-flow hazard maps are highly sensitive to uncertain source geometry and failure conditions, which are often disconnected from runout simulation.
Key Innovation: Couples limit-equilibrium source characterization with two-phase D-Claw depth-averaged modeling to propagate source-zone uncertainty into Te Maari avalanche runout predictions.
3. Dam Deformation Monitoring at Jatiluhur Dam, Indonesia, Using Multi-Temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry and Integrated Field Observations
Core Problem: Tropical dams are difficult to monitor with conventional InSAR because vegetation and atmosphere can reduce phase coherence.
Key Innovation: Integrates Sentinel-1 InSAR, leveling, GNSS, and reservoir water-level observations to monitor long-term deformation at Jatiluhur Dam.
4. Geophysical Assessment of Internal Erosion Damage in Levees
Core Problem: Internal erosion in levees is hazardous because damage can develop below the surface before visible distress appears.
Key Innovation: Combines ERT, MASW, and capacitively coupled resistivity at an Arkansas levee site to identify internal erosion and define practical investigation guidance.
5. Integration of terrestrial and UAV-based remote sensing techniques for comprehensive rock mass characterization in small-scale slopes
Core Problem: Small rock slopes require multi-scale discontinuity data, but single terrestrial or aerial surveys leave blind spots in rock-mass characterization.
Key Innovation: Combines terrestrial and UAV-based remote sensing to capture complementary structural information for geotechnical characterization of small-scale slopes.
6. Effects of Pore Fluid Properties on Dynamic Slip in Sandstone-Derived Fault Gouges From the Groningen Gas Reservoir
Core Problem: Dynamic fault slip can be weakened by thermal pressurization, but in situ pore fluids differ from the water-saturated conditions often used in experiments.
Key Innovation: Uses intermediate-velocity rotary shear experiments to test how brine and gas-bearing pore fluids modify dynamic slip in Groningen sandstone gouges.
7. A comparative study on seismic liquefaction potential of calcareous and siliceous sands using an energy-based interpretation
Core Problem: Calcareous and siliceous sands can show different cyclic liquefaction resistance, complicating transfer of standard sand-based design assumptions.
Key Innovation: Interprets undrained cyclic simple-shear tests with an energy framework to compare liquefaction resistance under stress, density, and static shear variations.
8. Permanent nearshore sediment loss and inevitable retreat of cohesive bluff-backed beaches
Core Problem: Bluff-backed beaches can narrow during high lake levels, reducing protection against wave attack and accelerating cohesive bluff retreat.
Key Innovation: Quantifies nearshore sediment loss and shows why cohesive bluff-backed beaches can undergo unavoidable retreat despite episodic sediment supply.
9. Rain-on-Snow Events Frequently Drive Peak Streamflow Across the Contiguous United States
Core Problem: Rain-on-snow events can produce rapid runoff and extreme flooding, but their contribution to annual peak flows across the United States is not well quantified.
Key Innovation: Analyzes 1982-2023 snow-affected watersheds and shows that rain-on-snow events regularly contribute to large annual peak streamflows across CONUS.
10. Characterization of ice retention during breakup upstream of an ice control structure: A case study of the Sartigan Dam in Quebec
Core Problem: Ice-control structures can reduce ice-jam flooding, but their performance may degrade under changing breakup conditions.
Key Innovation: Uses camera observations and ADCP measurements to characterize ice retention and support optimization of an existing control structure upstream of Sartigan Dam.
11. Tracking a Rangeland Fire With Infrasound Arrays
Core Problem: Fire tracking in open landscapes can be limited by visibility, access, and sparse direct observations.
Key Innovation: Uses infrasound arrays to track a rangeland fire, testing acoustic monitoring as an additional observation stream for rapidly evolving hazards.
12. The Tropical Indo‐Pacific and North Atlantic Precursors for the Interannual Variation of Extreme Humid‐heat Days in the Yangtze River Basin
Core Problem: Seasonal prediction of humid-heat extremes remains difficult because remote ocean-atmosphere precursors interact over several basins.
Key Innovation: Identifies Indo-Pacific and North Atlantic drivers that produce East Asian circulation anomalies and yield skillful prediction of humid-heat days in the Yangtze River Basin.
13. Anthropogenic and marine forcings on coastal groundwater quality degradation: Tracing, hydrogeochemical signatures, seawater intrusion trends, and cumulative health threats
Core Problem: Coastal groundwater quality can degrade through interacting seawater intrusion, agriculture, and geogenic controls, creating cumulative health and water-security risks.
Key Innovation: Combines hydrogeochemistry, clustering, positive matrix factorization, and Monte Carlo simulation to separate anthropogenic and marine drivers of groundwater degradation.
14. A self-reinforcing feedback loop exacerbates groundwater depletion in semiarid aquifers
Core Problem: Aquifer depletion can alter recharge pathways, potentially reinforcing the very water scarcity that triggered over-extraction.
Key Innovation: Combines groundwater trends, remote-sensing irrigation estimates, drought indices, and isotopes to diagnose a depletion-recharge feedback in a semiarid aquifer.
15. A remote sensing-based approach to suspended sediment estimation in rivers with scarce in situ data
Core Problem: Sediment-related impacts are hard to monitor where in situ river measurements are sparse and episodic.
Key Innovation: Couples Landsat, Sentinel-2, CHIRPS precipitation, SoilGrids, and artificial neural networks in Google Earth Engine to estimate suspended sediment concentration.
16. Time-dependent constitutive model for intact rocks with damage evolution law
Core Problem: Long-term rock stability in tunnels, mines, dams, and storage caverns depends on creep and tertiary failure that many constitutive models underrepresent.
Key Innovation: Develops a viscoelastic-viscoplastic damage model that captures hardening, damage evolution, tertiary creep, and time-to-failure behavior in intact rock.
17. A hypoplastic model with hydro-mechanical coupling for unsaturated soils considering density evolution
Core Problem: Wetting-induced softening and collapse in unsaturated soils affect slopes and foundations but are difficult to model with simple constitutive laws.
Key Innovation: Introduces hydro-mechanical coupling and density evolution into a hypoplastic framework using only two additional hydraulic-state parameters.
18. Research on the changes in shallow ground soil settlement caused by shield tunneling under the influence of the shielding effect of existing tunnels
Core Problem: Shield tunneling beneath existing tunnels can alter overlying soil settlement through shielding and soil-uplift effects.
Key Innovation: Develops and validates a calculation method for settlement under the shielding effect of existing tunnels using a Hangzhou metro-expressway case.
19. Quantifying the effects of near-fault fling-step ground motions on seismic performance of offshore wind turbines
Core Problem: Offshore wind turbines in seismically active regions may experience large displacement demands from fling-step ground motions.
Key Innovation: Quantifies how near-fault fling-step records affect offshore wind turbine seismic performance and energy dissipation demand.
20. Dynamic response of saturated bituminous sand under repetitive impacts
Core Problem: Large-diameter pile installation and foundation performance in bituminous sand require understanding impact-driven deformation and buckling risk.
Key Innovation: Uses repetitive split-Hopkinson pressure-bar tests to compare saturated bituminous sand response with calcareous and silica sands under varying density and impact velocity.
21. Experimental and numerical study on the seismic performance of shear panel dampers with different web configurations
Core Problem: Structural resilience under earthquakes depends on energy-dissipation devices whose failure modes and stiffness degradation vary with geometry.
Key Innovation: Combines cyclic tests and numerical modeling to compare corrugated, flat, and shape-optimized shear panel dampers for seismic control.
22. CFRP-toughened cold-formed steel shear walls equipped with reduced-section energy-dissipation devices for seismic performance enhancement
Core Problem: Cold-formed steel shear walls can buckle and dissipate limited energy during earthquakes, even when connections are strengthened.
Key Innovation: Combines CFRP-toughened connections with reduced-section energy-dissipation devices to improve seismic hysteresis and damage control.
23. Earthquake-induced acceleration control of monopole communication towers using a levered tuned mass damper
Core Problem: Slender communication towers can experience high acceleration demand during earthquakes, threatening structural safety and equipment serviceability.
Key Innovation: Develops a levered tuned mass damper and multi-modal control strategy to reduce acceleration response within confined tower interiors.
24. Experimental investigation and performance evaluation of cross-layer cable-bracing system with displacement amplification damper
Core Problem: Cable-bracing control systems need to increase damper deformation and energy dissipation without imposing impractical structural modifications.
Key Innovation: Tests a cross-layer cable-bracing system that routes interstory drift through pulleys to a lever-based displacement amplification damper.
25. A outrigger and substructure system with multi-cavity bidirectional amplified viscous damper: experimental investigation and performance evaluation
Core Problem: High-rise structural control systems need efficient bidirectional damping and displacement reduction under seismic loading.
Key Innovation: Develops and tests a multi-cavity bidirectional amplified viscous damper integrated with an outrigger-substructure system.
26. Effectiveness and robustness of a quasi-harmonic-type multistable nonlinear energy sink-inerter for dynamic response mitigation: theoretical, experimental, and numerical research
Core Problem: Conventional nonlinear energy sinks can require large masses and can be sensitive to input energy level.
Key Innovation: Combines multistable restoring force, quasi-harmonic behavior, and inerter-based mass amplification to broaden earthquake response mitigation.
27. Exploring the performance of a nonlinear bi-modal tuned mass damper under seismic excitation
Core Problem: Buildings subjected to bidirectional earthquakes require damping devices that remain effective across wider frequency bands than classical tuned mass dampers.
Key Innovation: Derives and evaluates a nonlinear bi-modal tuned mass damper using friction and viscous damping formulations under multiple earthquake records.
28. Analytical and PML-based solutions for 3D wave propagation in a liquid layer over an exponentially graded transversely isotropic medium
Core Problem: Layered fluid-solid systems complicate wave propagation and absorbing-boundary treatment in seismic and offshore geotechnical analysis.
Key Innovation: Derives analytical and PML-based solutions for 3D wave propagation in a liquid layer over an exponentially graded transversely isotropic medium.
29. Influences of rainfall, river discharge and land use on groundwater quality in the Cauvery River Delta, southern India: Implications on agricultural production and sustainability
Core Problem: Deltaic groundwater quality is shaped by rainfall, river discharge, and land-use change, with direct implications for agricultural sustainability.
Key Innovation: Combines long-term hydrometeorological and land-use datasets with hydrochemical analyses to diagnose groundwater-quality dynamics in the Cauvery River Delta.
30. Integrated geophysical investigation of a contaminated abandoned industrial site validated by borehole sample analysis: A case study in northeastern Shanghai, China
Core Problem: Compound contamination in soft-soil industrial sites is difficult to characterize with isolated boreholes or single geophysical methods.
Key Innovation: Integrates electromagnetic geophysical surveys with borehole validation to refine subsurface contamination assessment in northeastern Shanghai.